1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates track laying vehicles, and more particularly to an electromechanical drive for track-laying vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that electric drives for track-laying vehicles, compared with conventional, fully automatic, hydromechanical power-shift transmissions, permit increased flexibility in the component arrangement as well as a more favorable energy management of the vehicle with infinitely variable traction drive. The high demands made on the traction motor and on the power electronics in purely electic drives—without mechanical shift stages—leads to electric motors of large diameters. These motors require a lot of construction space and can only be arranged in vehicles to a limited extent.
Avoiding these disadvantages has led to the development of electromechanical drives. German Patent No. 37 28 171 C2 shows an electromechanical drive block which has an electric motor for the traction drive (traction motor), which is connected in each case to track drive sprockets via differential gear units. The effort of construction of the electric traction drive is drastically reduced by the interposition of a 2-speed gear unit. For the regenerative steering, however, a further electric motor (steering motor) and a mechanical zero shaft which transmit the mechanical output from the one to the other drive side, are necessary. The controlled supply of energy to both electric motors (traction and steering motors) is effected in a purely electrical manner via a generator driven by an internal combustion engine.